diff --git a/doc/forum/rsyncing_.git__47__annex__47__objects.mdwn b/doc/forum/rsyncing_.git__47__annex__47__objects.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..876b5e04a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/forum/rsyncing_.git__47__annex__47__objects.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +In short: is it safe to rsync .git/annex/objects/ to other clones? + +I'm in the process of migrating a lot of my files to a new backend. Most them +still use the old non-file-size-tracking SHA1 backend from when WORM was the +default. I have multiple clones that each use about 460 GB of their 500 GB +drives. + +I've noticed that git-annex creates hardlinks to migrated content in +.git/annex/objects, so I'm able to migrate all content despite only having 40 +GB of free space. Excellent. + +Now I'm planning to `rsync -a --hard-links .git/annex/objects/ +${CLONE}/.git/annex/objects/` to recreate the hardlinks and save space on the +clones as well. If I `fsck` afterwards, this should be fine, right? + +I've tried this with a test repository and it works but I'd like to be extra +sure that I'm not missing something crucial. + +The alternatives that I'm aware of are: + + * making space first: `git annex dropunused "1-20000"` and `git annex get .` + * running `git annex migrate` in each clone. + +I expect rsync to be safer and faster than these alternatives.